bina, relax. is the patient breathing? i don t know. she s lost a lot of breath. tell me exactly what s happening. bina screaming. we logged a call half an hour ago. she can t breathe. akshay made six calls in total each one more distressing. to hear my mother screaming, you know, saying that she s going to die. you know, even to the point, where are they, where are they? you know, screaming for help. she was screaming for the ambulance to come. sorry, graham. yeah, she was screaming for help. he sobs. and it didn t come! it took 56 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. by then, akshay s mum was dead. akshay s experience is not unique.
bina. she woke me up and she, you know, screamed my name akshay, akshay, get up, i can t breathe. and i thought, 0k, something s gone wrong here. so we will get an ambulance out to you as soon as possible, or as soon as we have an ambulance available i was just in a state of shock. i didn t know what to do myself because i ve never been in a position like that, and i was waiting for the people that knew what to do to come as soon as possible. akshay waited for 15 minutes, and then called back. 0k, we re very busy and we aim to be with you as soon as possible, or as soon as we have an ambulance available. 0k. currently it s likely to be over an hour and a half. but that s from your first call. right. 0k? 0k. it sjust incredibly busy this evening. i can t believe she s told me it s going to be an hour and a half from my first call. so, potentially, you know, that s four o clock in the morning. ijust looked at my mum and ijust thought, i don t know what to do.
patients who may have had a heart attack so called category 2 waited an average of 53 minutes for an ambulance in england last month. the target is eight minutes. the target is 18 minutes. where akshay lives in the northwest of england, category 2 patients waited an hour and seven minutes on average in december. if they came within their recommended time which is 18 minutes if they came within that time, i believe she would have been saved. the north west ambulance service has now completed an investigation seen by the bbc. it says, on the night akshay s mum died. in a statement, the service told us. these pictures show ambulances queuing up outside a hospital
much longerfor an ambulance to arrive. in some cases, those longer waits may prove fatal. bina patel died in october last year after an ambulance took 56 minutes to turn up. her son akshay who made six 999 calls during that time has been speaking to graham satchell. you may find his report upsetting. life is about positivity. surrounding yourself with people like me. she was a giving person, she was never a taker and ijust loved my mum. ijust think, you know, a lot of people say that we look alike. she was very loving and ijust couldn t live without her, in a sense. it s just a shame she s gone and, i mean, she was she was really young, and it s quite upsetting, to be honest. ambulance service, is the patient breathing? hi, can i get an ambulance, please? is the patient breathing? er, struggling. 0k. october the 11th last year, 2:31 in the morning, and akshay calls 999 for his mum,
in devon at the beginning ofjanuary there are similar pictures across the country. ambulances waiting hours to off load their patients because hospitals are full. the college of paramedics says it has had an impact on patient safety. in a statement, nhs england said. they go on to say. but i just want to know the truth and why. none of that is enough for akshay. something needs to be done about it, you know, because we all rely on the nhs, you know, and we only call them in emergency we don t call them every day we call them when we actually need them. and when they re not there, it kind of. you lose your trust. so. there s no way i can put trust in a service like that, you know? in the days after she died, akshay found a video on his mum s phone. he replays it again and again